Main menu

Monthly Archives: August 2005

On Saturday, I attended my first Bay Area Games Day, a bimonthly gathering of silicon valley gamers at the Los Altos public library. I was there a little after the start time of 10am, and quite a few games had already started.
I sat around and wrote for a bit, then played my first of two games, Power Grid. In it, players represent power companies attempting to power the most cities in the United States. The game features market manipulation and a decent catch-up mechanic, such that the player in last place buys resources (coal, oil, trash and nuclear fuel) first, and can thus bump up market prices — because resources of a given type become progressively more expensive as they are bought. I’d be interested in playing again.
The second game, after SSO showed up, was Arkham Horror, this year’s remake of the classic 1987 original. I recall trying to play the original with Cataptromancer way back when and not doing so well. Arkham Horror is a collaborative game set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror writings, in which players work together to keep a Great Old One from devouring the town of Arkham. In our game, we drew Ithaqua as the big bad. At first, it seemed as if things might be dicey, with gates appearing all over. However, we turned things around quickly — perhaps too quickly for the genre. I might want to handicap the game to make it harder with large groups. Still, I am now tempted to put Arkham Horror on a wishlist somewhere — it really did carry the flavor well and has much prettier are than the original.
On Sunday, I went to a Bullshido throwdown, organized by folks from bullshido.com and held at Modern Combatives in Berkeley. Tim was cool and came along with me, so someone would have my back in case I got hurt or people were fools. I went once on the ground, then again from the stand with the same dude, who was strong but wasn’t doing well on getting me. I did discover, however, that I am out of shape. Damn. That’s what happens when there’s no substantial exercise for a year. It’s also been three years or so since I trained any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Later I rolled with a much cooler guy who didn’t have anything to prove. I managed to pull off a sweep when he was standing over me, and was pretty happy about that.
I think BJJ is still my thing, but I am definitely out of shape.